NEWS AND INFORMATION

This section lists art colleges which have courses of interest to those wishing to study for a career in cartooning or sequential art. It also lists some useful websites, libraries, museums, and tutors who are accessible via their web addresses. It also lists events and competitions of interest to those studying cartooning and sequential art. And, lastly, it recommends events or other things which Cartoon Classroom considers of particular value to those studying these specialised art forms.

Recommendations

Comics Forum :A site which continuously recommends and directs all those interested in the serious study of sequential art to books and learned works on the medium. It also has useful articles, discussions and suchlike on its site relating to these matters. Cannot be recommended highly enough. Should be referred to on a regular basis for anyone interested in the subject matter of Cartoon Classroom. Go to the Links section on this site for their web address.

Recommendations

The Leeds Thought Bubble Festival : is both populist and academic in its aims. Has interesting seminars and discussions on the art and purpose of the sequential arts in all their varied forms as well as catering to those fascinated by the characters, situations and stories that dominate the mass- market product of the manga and comic book industry. Tickets are still available. Go to the link in our Links section for more.

Fab Chat At Cartoon County

The great illustrator and sequential artist, Glenn Fabry, will be chatting for podcast at the next Cartoon County meeting. For anyone out there unlucky enough to be unfamiliar with Glenn's work, check out his website -www.glennfabry.co.uk.
Glenn will be talking from around 7.15 upstairs at The Cricketers, Black Lion St, Brighton, on Monday, the 30th April.

Creating A Graphic Novel

Saturday 21st April, 10am,The Chequers, Chipping Norton

Andrew Wildman has illustrated and designed for Comics, Books, Games and Television for over twenty years.

Cradled In Caricature

Cradled In Caricature - Friday, 27th April, COLT3, University of Kent, Canterbury : This one-day event will approach the notion of ‘caricature’ as an artistic and social practice, using it to prompt debate and discussion on exaggeration, stereotyping, representation, and characterisation. Free to attend, but book quickly. http://cradledincaricature.wordpress.com/cic-event-27-april-2012/

Comics Artist Workshop At The Victoria and Albert

Celebrating British Design Sunday 27 May, 11.00 – 16.00

Comic artist extraordinaire, Brian Williamson, is at the Victoria and Albert Museum for a day of workshops celebrating British Design. Free drop-in event for all ages. Go and and learn from a master! No booking required.

Alt-Brighton

Publisher, QueenSpark of Brighton and Hove, is delighted to officially launch Alt-Brighton, a collaborative graphic novel project funded by Arts Council England.
Inspired by Alice in Sunderland, a graphic novel by Bryan Talbot - who is an adviser on the project - QueenSpark will train and support volunteer novelists and graphic designers to use the history of Brighton & Hove as the launching pad for the first novel of its kind in the UK.

If you are inspired by the project, why not submit a short story or idea from 100 to 2000 words, based around the history of Brighton & Hove, on to the 'New Writing' section of the QueenSpark website, by 28 February 2012 www.queensparkbooks.org.uk (Please note: you will have to register as a new user, and your submission will be able to be read and commented on by members of the public.)

New Comics Course

Comics and Graphic Novels Course For AdultsWest Dean College, Chichester Suitable for all levels.
You will learn about comic and graphic novel storytelling techniques, and how to create your own visual narrative. Everyone will end the course with one completed comic page, and the skills to continue their work for themselves. We will look at comic and graphic novel art styles, the use of text and images, the "grammar" of comic art, use of sound effects, abstraction, and styles. You provide a story from your own experience, or one you wish to adapt into the medium.

Hatley 3 month residency at Centre for Recent Drawing

Dear all

I enclose details of the Hatley Residency, which gives artists/writers/interesting linear-minded people a studio at C4RD for three months, and can show the work (or not) at the end of it. If you know of some people who would benefit from it - please send them our way!
Comic artists and scholars most welcome!

The Hatley Residency at site in our London building at Highbury Islington is provided for three months at a time, with a possibility, if desired, of a short ‘Works in Progress‘ exhibition during or at the end of the residency, that shows only the studio work of the residency.

The calendar periods are Jan-March, April-June, July-September, October-December. Applications are open on an ongoing basis, but as usual candidates should in the first instance join the C4RD Community.

There is no ideal candidate for the residency, and broadly exploratory work in any medium or field of endevour is welcome, but should be sympathetic to a broad understanding of C4RD and its work.

There is no living accommodation provided with any type of C4RD residency, nor any funded assistance beyond the provision of the studio, which includes electricity and wireless internet access. Physical access to the studio and C4RD is from 6am - 1am. All transport costs, liability and insurance is covered by the resident.

The successful candidate is asked at the end of the residency to write a short private account of the experience to be provided to the supporter of the residency.

Andrew Hewish
for C4RD

Art School Courses

This section lists some courses available at art schools and colleges throughout the UK which can help those planning a career in comics or sequential art. Explore Search for others.
There are very few specialised courses entirely devoted to the study of cartoons or sequential art, but lessons in creating storyboards - the preparatory drawings used in tv and film-making - are common to many, and can help in learning how to create sequential art for other purposes.
Generally, illustration courses are the best option for any art college student wishing to pursue a future in comics or cartoons. If you study how to draw well, you can use that skill in any way you want to - to show the funny or the fantastic, the serious or the silly.

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD)
University of Dundee BA/BA Hons programmes in the School of Media Arts & Imaging - Animation, Illustration and Time Based Art & Digital Filmhttp://www.imaging.dundee.ac.uk

Web Sites

Many web sites can help in the study of cartoon and comic art. Some show the history of the medium and examples from some of its best creators. Others demonstrate the techniques involved in the creative processes of cartoon and comic strip art. More in the Links section.

Reading With Pictures - www.readingwithpictures.org. This is the website of a US organization that is trying to increase the recognition of sequential art as a valuable art study subject as well as a useful tool in general education. An interview with the site's founder - Josh Elder - is attached at the bottom of this page. See Staff Room for tutors of comic art who voice similar views.

Cartoon Art Study via Libraries

Anyone interested in learning drawing skills of any kind can find a range of valuable instructional books at their local library. Libraries can also be a valuable source of local information on art study groups, such as life classes and workshops.
And many libraries are now running cartooning workshops of their own, having found them a consistently successful addition to the services they offer - particularly in encouraging creativity and literacy skills amongst people who aren't excited by more conventional studies. They bring new readers through their doors and encourage old ones to return.
Listed below are libraries which regularly run cartoon workshops, or have run them in recent times. If your local area library is not on the list, ask them to consider the possibility of doing so. If they doubt the value of these workshops, we'll gladly supply them with glowing testimony from libraries who've run them with great results.

Museum And Gallery Resources

If your local museum and gallery doesn't have artwork from local cartoonists or sequential artists on show, ask them if they have any in their collections. Some have, but can't advertise the work and display it because of space restrictions.
Regrettably, very few galleries and museums have examples of this kind of art in their possession, though I'm sure many could be persuaded to explore the possibility of acquiring some if they were reminded that it was as important in representing the artistic endeavours of their area as the work of any other local artist might be. You could suggest to your local museum that they add some cartoon and comic art to their archives if you happen to know there are professional cartoonists living and working around you.
Listed below are a few museums which do possess cartoon art in their collections. Others are listed here which have fine examples of watercolours and childrens book illustrations. These are often allied to cartoon and comics art, and are worth viewing for all those interested in studying the medium seriously.

Cartoonists And Comic Creators Available For Teaching Or Talks

Cartoon drawing and sequential art are specialised forms of expression and storytelling, which can only be tought effectively by those who practice them. Luckily for those interested in learning these skills, there are a number of such tutors across the country who can be hired on a part-time basis to do this.
Below is a list of some you may find suitable for your particular needs. Use Search for fuller details on these tutors, and for a wider selection in listings by area. Online tutorials can be found via the websites in our Links section.

Dr Who In Comics

Over 100 original works of art at the Cartoon Museum, featuring the Doctor in all his incarnations.

Conference of Graphic Novels and Comics 5-8 July 2011

A conference will take place this July involving three comics journals: Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Journal of European Comic Art and Studies in Comics. Speakers come from around the world. The event will be held at the Manchester Metropolitan University. More information can be found here: http://www2.hlss.mmu.ac.uk/conferences/graphic-novels-bandes-dessinees-comics/

Glasgow Life Comic Commission

Glasgow Life commissioned sequential art team, Metaphrog, to create a short comic story - The Photographs - in response to a series of workshops held with teenagers and senior groups around Glasgow.Read it online here:http://www.metaphrog.com/thephotographs/

As part of the project, they also gave a short talk about it at the Growing Bolder Intergenerational Art Festival for Glasgow's Active Ageing Week 2011. The event took place at the CCA in Glasgow on June 7th.

The full colour A6 booklet of The Photographs is being launched at the Growing Bolder Arty Party on June 10th.

Steve Bell Exhibition

Bell Epoque - 30 Years Of Steve Bell

Running at The Cartoon Museum - see Links - from 25th May to 24th July.

'Against the tidal wave of images threatening to overwhelm us, Bell believes in the enduring importance of cartooning as an art form and the power of a single still image to make people stop and think.'

Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival

The Festival, held in April each year, has its 7th incarnation next
year (22nd- 25th April). It is the only - and now the longest running - cartoon festival in the UK. It stages several cartoon exhibitions that run each year for around 4 weeks straddling the festival. It is closely linked with the Professional Cartoonists Organisation, which helps ensure the quality of work on display is always aiming for the best.

The festival weekend features talks, workshops, clinics and other events for the public to see cartooning in action. 40 selected cartoonists are invited to attend and participate. The event has active support from the Cartoon Museum, the British Library and the Cartoon Archive at Canterbury.
See links for website.

THE FIRST MEN ON MERCURY - A COMIC ADAPTATION FOR NATIONAL POETRY DAY:

The Association for Scottish Literary Studies commissioned Metaphrog to make a comic adaptation of Edwin Morgan's poem, The First Men on Mercury, to celebrate National Poetry Day, as a way of interesting children and adults in poetry, visually.
32,500+ copies were distributed to all pupils in Glasgow Secondary schools on the 8th of October.
The comic can be read at http://www.metaphrog.com/mercury, with some behind the scenes information on the making of the comic, and also teaching notes for the classroom.

Fighting Ignorance

Jag Lall's "Death’s Door: Ignorance Likes Company '' is being used as an educational tool to warn against the dangers of racism in schools across Newham in London, and has attracted the endorsement of such bodies for good as the United Nations Association of Canada. Another example of how the graphic novel format can be effective in spreading a virtuous message through educational institutions. More detail about Jag and his book can be found through Search.

A New Cartoon Museum Opens!

Donald McGills Postcard Museum

Opened on the 10th July at 15 Union Street, Ryde, entirely dedicated to displaying and celebrating the famous saucy seaside postcard art of the great cartoonist, Donald McGill. Opening times are from 12.00 -5.00, 7 days a week til early September. Admission £3.50 per adult, children over 5, £1.50, and for the under 5's, a penny only! Coach parties and block bookings welcome for morning visits. Check it all out on their website - http://www.donaldmcgill.info.

Reading With Pictures - Josh Elder Interview ( see Web Sites above )

Why did you start Reading With Pictures?
Reading With Pictures came out of my cartooning workshops at schools. Over the years, I've spoken with thousands of students and hundreds of teachers.A pattern began to emerge: Teachers by and large saw the value of using graphic novels in the classroom but were stymied in their efforts by a number of systemic, institutionalized barriers.
The first was that teachers didn’t know which to use or how to make the best use of them.The second was that there was no significant body of academic research that provided empirical proof of the value of comics in the scholastic environment, thus making it next to impossible to win over skeptical ( and rightly so, given the stakes ) administrators, school boards, and parents.
I realized that I would have to go beyond grassroots comics’ evangelism in order to effectpositive change. I would have to build an organizationwith significant resources and institutional credibility.

Why is this organization needed now? What made this the right time to start this project?
We’re living in a moment of profoundly shifting cultural attitudes toward the comics medium.The graphic novel is the strongest growth sector in publishing, and the majority of the top 20 highest grossing films of the last 10 years were based on comic properties.Graphic novels have a New York Times bestseller list category.As a result, cultural gatekeepers ( educators, for instance ) are more inclined to view comics as the serious artform it is.It also doesn’t hurt that more great work is being produced today than at any time in the medium’s history, and that classic titles are more widely available than ever before.
The concept of media and visual literacy has also been gaining traction in academic and educational circles. Graphic novels—which include incredibly sophisticated forms of text/image interaction as a matter of course—have benefited from this trend for obvious reasons. Media/visual literacy advocates have opened the door for comics to be taken seriously as educational materials, while comics provide a “killer app” for teaching media/visual literacy.

What makes comics and graphic novels such an important tool for teaching reading?
I could probably write a book on this (and Peter Gutierrez is currently doing just that).
I learned to read from comics and they've been my constant literary companions ever since. I went on to be a National Merit Scholar, score a perfect on the ACT Reading Exam, and then graduate from Northwestern University.My first job out of college was as a magazine editor and, aside from writing comics professionally, I also freelance for the Chicago Sun-Times.Comics helped enhance my vocabulary and taught me the invaluable skill ( especially in the digital age ) of learning to pair words with images in order to more effectively communicate one's message.Comics taught me to love literature, to love reading, to love art, and to love writing.They were a ladder for my scholastic development, not a crutch.Take the study of Shakespeare, for example.Nothing kills love of the bard more surely than being forced to read him.Shakespeare himself only intended his plays to be read by actors—otherwise he wouldn’t have, you know, written plays.The visual component is absolutely essential to understanding and appreciating Shakespeare, and since his plays are only dialogue, they can be translated with fidelity into a graphic novel.

What has the reaction been among teachers toward using graphic novels in the classroom?
Overall, staggeringly positive.No teacher can ignore graphic novels anymore, and few would deny that graphic novels are successful in reaching otherwise unreachable students.We want to take full advantage of this paradigm-shifting moment to help educational institutions bring graphic novels into the classroom, where they belong.

You’re partnered with Northwestern University. How did that partnership come about and what will it mean in the future for Reading With Pictures?
The partnership with Northwestern is one of the most exciting things about the Reading With Pictures project.A major research university studying comics is news all by itself, and we’re hoping that it will inspire other universities to do the same.I’ve also had discussions with the MFA program at Northwestern about creating interdisciplinary courses that focus on creating graphic novels.

Cartoon Classroom Now On Facebook

Cartoon Classroom now has a page on Facebook. Visit and like us if you're on Facebook, as well. You can post your views, give us your feedback on this site, and suggest improvements. You can also use it to tell us about anything going on in your area that we've yet to feature here in our pages - anything that's relevant to the study of cartooning and sequential art in the UK and Ireland, and of use to visitors to our site. Exhibitions, art courses you've discovered, new museums opening, good instructional videos you can tell us about. And tell all your Facebook friends about our page and this site if you feel it can help them, or if they can help it by spreading the word about us! www.facebook.com/pages/Cartoon-Classroom/208823042468729

Comics And Conflicts

From Ian Hague at Comics Forum ( see Links ) :

We are pleased to offer a digital archive of the papers presented at the conference along with some other material. This is the first time we’ll be trying something like this, and it’s part of Comics Forum’s remit to help develop scholarly resources online. Although we’re still ironing out the technical kinks with this one, the hope is to be able to provide a central archive for various conferences, so if you are a conference director and would be interested in collaborating in future please do get in touch with me. Keep an eye on our site for further announcements on this collaboration as we move forward with the project.

Internship In Comics

Londonprintstudio is offering five carefully chosen 21-25 year olds the chance to:

-Run comic workshops for 16-20 year olds.
-Receive mentoring from top professional comic artists, anthology makers, screenwriters, print makers, comic publishers and art educators.
-Develop your own artistic comic projects with supervision from mentors and feedback from your fellow interns..
-Be introduced to the London comic scene, attend events, give presentations, network and meet publishers, editors and creators in the comic industry.
-Take part in editing, planning and creating work for a comic anthology publication and a comic exhibition at londonprintstudio.

The course is run by professional comic creator Karrie Fransman who’s comics have appeared in The Times, The Guardian and who is currently working on her first graphic novel due to be published by Random House.2 days (14 hours) per week for a six-months. Interns will receive a travel and food expenses budget for two days per week. All londonprintstudio staff and volunteers are required to have a Criminal Records Bureau Check.

Deadline for return of application form: Monday 5th September 2011

Start date: Tuesday 20th September 2011

Interviews : Tuesday 13th September 2011

Remember you must live in London, or be living in London for the duration of the internship!